Daily Mail Motor Review

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Ha, yeah and then fly-by-night companies (most of whom seem to be registered to a broom cupboard on an industrial estate) started up and offered to save you thousands. The one I could never work out was why it was cheaper to buy a Rover group car in Brussels and drive it back, than to actually buy one in Britain.

I bought an S-Type From a guy that had a factory in Coventry supplying components to, amongst others, Jaguar.

He bought it from a broker in Brussels in 2000. Although I often wondered if the fact it said 5 door hatchback on the logbook was in any way connected with the import.

[Snipes]

That back Excel looks fantastic.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

....if anyone owns a car that was in production in 1989 HMU and I'll take a photo of the incredibly positive review for you....

I think the BMW 635CSi "Highline" was priced at about £43,000 in 1989. You could have bought a decent house for that.

 

The Citroen CX would have been in its final production year in 1989 - wonder if it was listed in the Review for that year?

 

....heres a Skoda advert.

 

IMG_20190222_234651.jpg

 

Who the fuck were they trying to appeal to with this advert?....

No idea who the target group was, but Volkswagen had a similarly-worded ad campaign: "If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen....."

[sutty2006]

Can confirm. And if you consider that the top-of-range Senator came with pretty neat tech like adaptable suspension (which is now impossible to find spares for...), its not too surprising that it was an expensive car back in the day. I'd be surprised if most haven't been sold with massive discounts though.

I remember my old 24v Senator, when I found that switch for the adaptive suspension I thought “nahhh there’s no way that still works”

 

It bloody well did. Surprising how well it worked. Magnetised iron filings in the rear shockers. Bonkers.

[ProgRocker]

In the 80s my old man had a Talbot Horizin LS (FSW 369Y)

 

My parents ran a Horizon LS too (JMD 918W). I hated it.

[wuvvum]

Heh, I had that 1989 Daily Hate guide.  I seem to recall there was an article at the front about some experimental Citroën with 4WS and Hydractive suspension?

[Bradders59]

I bought a 10 year old 24v Senator in 2000 for 2 grand. It was probably the best 2 grand Ive ever spent, as it was a superb car - until the inevitable rust set in.

I still miss that car, and wish I had its digital dash in my 3.2 Omega.

[ProgRocker]

Mine are all a bit older than these copies (no surprise there - old twat) but I shared the same heady sense of anticipation each October when the new copy came out.   There was the standard Daily Mail one but another paper (the Express?) did a World Cars edition.   This was later on - in the 1970s - but it had total winners in it like Premier Padmini, Hindustan Contessa (never mind yer Morris Oxford mate, this was gold-plated dogshit based on the FE Victor) and all the Yank stuff they had given up selling over here.  

 

My dad bought me the Daily Express World Cars edition for 1987 and I think 1989. A good source of info on the myriad of American brands like Eagle (the Premiere as a booted Renault 25) and I remember the Hindustan Contessa too. It was great to see the classic VW Beetle with it's country of manufacture stated as Mexico and also the Brazilian VW Fox (an elongated Polo breadvan).

[cort16]

Do you think people bought new cars as regularly back then ? Growing up I don’t remember any family or family friends driving anything remotely new . I remember one of dads mates got a new fiat Florino van and it was a big deal.

Pretty much everyone I know now even me drives a new or newish car. Maybe it’s a side effect of becoming a middle class wanker and my slow decent into becoming Terry Scott.

[HillmanImp]

Much on the peugeot 405 in that magazine?

[HillmanImp]

Do you think people bought new cars as regularly back then ? Growing up I don’t remember any family or family friends driving anything remotely new . I remember one of dads mates got a new fiat Florino van and it was a big deal.

Pretty much everyone I know now even me drives a new or newish car. Maybe it’s a side effect of becoming a middle class wanker and my slow decent into becoming Terry Scott.

My parents only ever had new cars.

 

Thats probably why I had fucking Go-Bots instead of Transformers.

 

Most of my parents friends had new cars too though. I remember my mates mum had a brand new Clio, one registration number under my dads Renault 19.

 

I thought new cars were more common then than they are now but maybe not.

 

I was in Gretna till 1983 and then in Sussex. I remember one person down our road in Gretna having an old car but everyone elses was new. No different in Sussex so I didn't think it was the North/south divide or regional affluence.

[HillmanImp]

The Citroen CX would have been in its final production year in 1989 - wonder if it was listed in the Review for that year? 

Here it is in good company with the Dacia Duster.

 

[cort16]

It must have been all that sweet shotgun wedding money in Gretna .

[paulscavalier]

IMG_20190223_183852.jpg

Very interesting thanks. I imagine it was quite well equipped compared to the Sierra /cavalier

[Timewaster]

My dad only ever bought 3 new cars in his life.

 

A Reliant Supervan

A Mini Mayfair

A Suzuki Wagon R

 

Any suprise I ended up lurking around here?

 

Only new car I ever had was my last company car.

[AMC Rebel]

cort16, on 23 Feb 2019 - 08:01 AM, said:

 

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We

 

 

At the risk of mentoning the unmentionable, if I reczll correctly, some wrangling in the EU sorted this out. Some people noticed one could order a rhd car in UK spec in say Belgium and it'd be cheaper.

Manufacturers tried to stop people doing this and the EU stepped in.

This is all just my recollection so could be arse.

[Spottedlaurel]

In similar vein, there was also Car Catalogue International. I think it was a pan-European publication translated for different markets as the photos and spec's didn't really match up with what we got in the UK, but it was fun to see different versions of familiar cars.

 

Inevitably I have accumulated stacks of these old Mail, Express etc guides over the years. May well have some duplicates if anyone's interested.

 

Thinking about the prices of cars relative to other stuff, I got a 1977 copy of What Car? the other day and it contained a big piece on what else could be bought for the £20,000 price of a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. They came up with the following:

 

1) Jaguar XJ 3.4, Mini, mink coat and world cruise.

 

2) Porsche Carrera, VW Scirocco and BMW R100 RS bike.

 

3) Range Rover, horse, horsebox and country cottage (apparently about £10-12k back then).

 

4) BMW 528, Robin light plane.

 

5) Mercedes Benz 350SE, 25.5' Hustler yacht.

[mat_the_cat]

Anyhow, if anyone owns a car that was in production in 1989 HMU and I'll take a photo of the incredibly positive review for you.

 

I have to ask, did they feature the Stellar in such a fine publication?

[HillmanImp]

I have to ask, did they feature the Stellar in such a fine publication?

 

I do apologise for the photos of a magazine. I do have a scanner but I've lost the instructions and its under a massive pile of stuff in the corner of the spare room.

[HillmanImp]

cort16, on 23 Feb 2019 - 08:01 AM, said:

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We

At the risk of mentoning the unmentionable, if I reczll correctly, some wrangling in the EU sorted this out. Some people noticed one could order a rhd car in UK spec in say Belgium and it'd be cheaper.

Manufacturers tried to stop people doing this and the EU stepped in.

This is all just my recollection so could be arse.

I did wonder that myself. I was looking at the UK built cars and was thinking they were cheaper but then the Senator fucked it all up.

[mat_the_cat]

IMG_20190223_230244.jpg

 

I do apologise for the photos of a magazine.

 

No need to apologise, I've been sitting here pressing F5 all evening!

[Walter White]

What a choice to make in 1988, 2 Hyundai Stellars or one Mercedes 190 for very similar amounts of money.

[HillmanImp]

I did wonder that myself. I was looking at the UK built cars and was thinking they were cheaper but then the Senator fucked it all up.

Just checked, Senator was built in Germany.

[mercrocker]

Buying UK-spec RHD cars from European mainland dealers was a very big thing for a short time.   Opel / Vauxhall tried to stop Belgian/Dutch dealers from selling to UK customers (and UK dealers from servicing foreign-sourced cars) and fell foul of EU free trade regs.   It did lead to price drops in the UK, though.   This would have been late 80s IIRC.   Never been in the position to buy or want a new car so it all passed me by but I do remember people at work arranging 2/3 days off to get their new motor.

[cms206]

IMG_20190223_230244.jpg

 

I do apologise for the photos of a magazine. I do have a scanner but I've lost the instructions and its under a massive pile of stuff in the corner of the spare room.

Pony Gold Medal! That's almost as appealing as the Stellar.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Lacquer Peel]

Just checked, Senator was built in Germany.

Yes I was going to award you three Pinocchios for that post but thought better of it.

[Walter White]

Much on the peugeot 405 in that magazine?

Some 405 content from 1992 for you.

[Walter White]

Full House.

[Walter White]

Autoshite.com double page spread.

[Walter White]

Some great adverts.